1. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communication and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for enhanced indoor position location with assisted user profiles.
2. Background
There exists a number of position location services offered through the wireless carriers today. These services consist of two common system components: 1) a device that periodically or on demand reports its position location and 2) a user interface either via a web portal or an application running on a mobile handset to view or to query the current position of the device.
Given the current technology of GPS and Assisted GPS (A-GPS), the position location has an accuracy of approximately 5 m to 50 m when the device is in a clear outdoor position location. The GPS signal is often very poor for indoor reception. Position location cannot be determined if the GPS signal is not received. Many companies are working or have solutions in the marketplace to provide an enhanced indoor position location. One of the well-known approaches is Qualcomm's SnapTrack, which uses a location server with a reference GPS receiver that can simultaneously detect the same satellites as a wireless handset with partial GPS information (i.e., information from less than four GPS satellites) in order to find the weak GPS signal. The wireless handset collects measurements from both the GPS satellites and the wireless mobile network. These measurements are combined by the location server to produce position estimation.
For indoor position location, there exists one notable solution using Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) from SkyHook. The underlying technology requires the knowledge of the positions of the Wi-Fi APs. For a Wi-Fi capable handset, it will determine its position location using the Wi-Fi AP location. This technology requires an accurate location of the Wi-Fi APs and the mobile handset to be Wi-Fi capable. Although this method has been considered the most compelling solution for indoor position determination, this approach has many shortcomings. First, the approach is not easily scalable, as positions of the Wi-Fi APs must be constantly determined. Second, Wi-Fi APs within private areas (e.g., corporations, large living complexes) are not accessible in order to build out a comprehensive database of AP locations. Third, not all handsets are Wi-Fi capable, and therefore would not be able to utilize this technology. Fourth, a user may roam into an area where there is no Wi-Fi AP or the Wi-Fi AP position is not known.
As such, there exists a need for an enhanced indoor position location without the limitations as stated supra.